Community Care Community Care Social Work News & Social Care Jobs
Menu
  • Jobs/Careers
    • Jobs
    • Employer Profiles
    • Workforce Insights
    • Podcasts
    • Careers Zone
    ▼
  • Learning
    • Community Care Inform Adults
    • Community Care Inform Children
    ▼
  • Events
    • Masterclasses
    • Webinars
    • Community Care Live
    ▼
  • E-newsletters
  • News
    • Adults
    • Children
    • Social work leaders
    • Workforce
    • Choose Social Work
    • Write for Community Care
    ▼
  • Network
    • The Social Work Community
    ▼
  • Search
  • ID
    Community Care
    • Menu
    • Jobs/Careers
      • Jobs
      • Employer Profiles
      • Workforce Insights
      • Podcasts
      • Careers Zone
    • Learning
      • Community Care Inform Adults
      • Community Care Inform Children
    • Events
      • Masterclasses
      • Webinars
      • Community Care Live
    • E-newsletters
    • News
      • Adults
      • Children
      • Social work leaders
      • Workforce
      • Choose Social Work
      • Write for Community Care
    • Network
      • The Social Work Community
    • Search
      • Register
      • Login
      Jobs Live Inform

      Black and ethnic minority student rate improves for Think Ahead but remains half of master’s average

      Representation up from 16% to 17% but fast-track mental health course lags well behind university postgraduate courses and profession as a whole

      By Mithran Samuel on August 11, 2020 in Workforce
      student
      Photo: StockPhotoPro/Fotolia

      Black and ethnic minority representation on Think Ahead has improved slightly to its highest level this year but remains just half that of university master’s courses.

      Seventeen per cent of this year’s cohort at the fast-track mental health social work course are from Black and ethnic minority groups, up from a 16% average from 2016-19. The programme started in 2015.

      However, despite the improvement – and the rate being above the Black and ethnic minority population in England and Wales (14% in the 2011 census) – it lags well behind that of other training routes and the social work profession itself (see box).

      Critically, it is just under half the rate of university master’s social work courses who are direct comparators for Think Ahead, in so far as draws its intake from graduates.

      Black and ethnic minority representation comparison in England

      • Postgraduate courses: 36% (2017-18, source: Skills for Care)
      • Undergraduate courses: 36% (2019, source: UCAS)
      • Frontline: 22% (2020, source: Frontline)
      • Local authority adults’social workers: 25% (2019, source: NHS Digital)
      • Local authority children’s services: 22% (2019, source: DfE)

      Self-examination on race

      The figures come with social work organisations examining their records on race – both in relation to people who use services and to their workforces and students, in the light of the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protest that followed.

      Its fellow fast-track provider, Frontline, has published a race and inclusion action plan vowing action on intake, curriculum and staffing, while Think Ahead is also examining the same issues.

      A Think Ahead spokesperson: “Our intake is more diverse in terms of ethnicity than the population as a whole, but we know this is not good enough – we want our social workers to represent the communities they will serve. To achieve this, and to be true to our anti-racist values, we are looking to make changes in every area of our work, from recruitment, to our curriculum, to our wider work in the sector.

      “To focus this, we recently began a comprehensive review of our work, including by listening to and learning from the communities we work with, and we’ve already started making changes based on the feedback we got.”

      Related articles

      • ‘We are creating a social work education system where those in greatest need receive the least’
      • Frontline says it must improve on race in response to critical feedback from participants
      • Social work leading the way on student diversity for undergraduate courses, show official figures

      More from Community Care

      Related articles:

      Care packages halved for most people with learning disabilities during Covid, report carers
      How one council stayed connected to staff during the pandemic

      3 Responses to Black and ethnic minority student rate improves for Think Ahead but remains half of master’s average

      1. Jenni Barnett August 12, 2020 at 12:48 pm #

        Think Ahead is a great resource but in reality no one else is thinking ahead so you make no real changes in recruitment and no real change in senior recruitment of non white employees. Where non white employees are recruited at the grass level they suffer intolerable racism and do not ride through the ranks. If a non white employee does rise through the ranks there is always someone on the fifth floor to push you back to grass roots. The locum population is disproportionately black with no pension or security. They are given twice the caseload amount and criticised about their unacceptably high caseloads not going down. Thinking Ahead means unbearable work experiences becoming a nomadic worker who is disconnected from family and friends in the name of earning a living whose security both financially and emotionally has no correlation with thinking ahead.

      2. alex August 13, 2020 at 8:13 pm #

        What are the proportion of black applicants compared to white applicants. This is an important stat that is missing.

      3. Alex August 13, 2020 at 10:06 pm #

        ‘They are given twice the case load’ – where is your evidence.

      Job of the week

      Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council logo

      Children’s Social Workers – Level 2/3 – Children & Families First

      Employer Profiles

      • Bournemouth beach Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
      • Hampshire County Council
      • A picture of an Oxford college quad Oxfordshire County Council
      • Two colleagues talking South Gloucestershire Council
      • Wokingham town centre image Wokingham Borough Council

      Workforce Insights

      • Would you move from the city to work in a more rural setting?
      • Webinar: building a practice framework with the influence of practitioner voice
      • Photo: Microgen/ Adobe ‘They don’t have to retell their story’: building long-lasting relationships with children and young people
      • Podcast: returning to social work after becoming a first-time parent
      • How managers are inspiring social workers to progress in their careers
      • Hand putting wooden cube block on blue background with word CAREER and copy space for your text. Business career planning growth to success concept Workforce Insights – showcasing a selection of the sector’s top recruiters

      Featured jobs

      Sign up for our social work emails

      More from Community Care

      • Network

        The networking platform for social workers


        Connect with peers
      • Jobs

        The latest job opportunities within the social work sector

        Search for jobs
      • Events

        The largest free to attend event for the social work sector

        Register now
      • Learn

        The online learning and practice resource for social workers

        Find out more

      Connect with us

      • facebookFacebook
      • XX
      • LinkedInLinkedIn
      • InstagramInstagram

      Topics

      • Adults
      • Children
      • Workforce
      • Social work leadership

      More information

      • About us
      • Contact us
      • Write for Community Care
      • Accessibility
      • Advertise with us
      • Privacy
      • Terms & conditions
      • Cookies
      Mark Allen Group
      © MA Education 2025. St Jude's Church, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, London SE24 0PB, a company registered in England and Wales no. 04002826. MA Education is part of the Mark Allen Group. All Rights Reserved